Gator Bowl looking for new title sponsor

The Gator Bowl and Toyota will end a 12-year title-sponsorship relationship after the Jan. 1, 2007, game.

Gator Bowl president Rick Catlett said a consulting firm has been hired to help the Gator Bowl Association find a new title sponsor. The target date to sign an agreement is January or February.

"It was an exceptional relationship, but we have to move on and find more dollars, since we have increased our payout to teams playing in the game [from $1.6 million last year to $2.25 million this year]," Catlett said. "Toyota was with us during a time when the game became more elevated in college football, and they were a phenomenal partner."

A four-year contract with Toyota actually expired last year. When the two parties couldn't reach an agreement earlier this year in conjunction with the new TV deal with CBS and new affiliation agreements with the ACC, Big East, Big 12 and Notre Dame, a one-year extension was signed.

However, Catlett said further negotiations proved fruitless. Toyota was willing to sign another four-year agreement for the same financial terms, but Catlett said the company needed to increase the stakes, along with CBS giving more for rights fees than NBC and ticket prices being increased for the first time in 11 years.

Although Catlett did not reveal the terms the GBA was seeking from a title sponsor, he said the association was seeking a package similar to what the Cotton, Holiday and Capital One bowls are getting from their title sponsors.

"We feel we are in the same category as those games - one step below the Bowl Championship Series games - and we deserved those terms," Catlett said. "We know what those other games were getting from their title sponsors, and Toyota was unwilling to give it us. But we're parting on very amicable terms."

Ed Sheehy, vice president of sales and marketing for Southeast Toyota, did not return a phone message left for him by the Times-Union.

Catlett expressed confidence that a title sponsor would be found.

"With our deal with CBS and adding the Big 12 to our affiliations with the ACC [Atlantic Coast Conference], Big East and Notre Dame, we don't anticipate having problems finding a title sponsor who wants to be associated with our game," Catlett said.

Scott Keith, the 2007 volunteer chairman, said time is on the GBA's side.

"By starting now, we can be prudent in our choice of title sponsor," he said. "We think there is a nationally known corporation that would want its name associated with a nationally known bowl game.

"We've done a lot of work in the past 12 months to strengthen our conference affiliations and make sure our game is on network television, and we're confident that's an attractive package."